1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of data processing systems. More particularly, this invention relates to an agent architecture for triggering data processing operations in response to autonomous initiation from elsewhere.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to provide data processing systems that may be triggered to perform processing operations from elsewhere. One example of such a system is the XML-RPC system/protocol, by which XML data may be sent from an initiating computer to a target computer to provide a remote procedure call. The target computer receives the XML data and identifies which of its known, finite set of remote procedures is to be triggered. The remote procedures form a single entity with the receiving code on the target computer which receives the XML data. This XML-RPC system has the disadvantage that it is not readily extendible and it is generally not capable of user customisation.
Another known system is that of an internet browser with various plug-in modules. In such a system a user will initiate the download of a webpage from a webserver. This webpage may contain various portions of content that require specific plug-ins in order to be processed. If these plug-ins are present, then the relevant content, such as a video clip, will be displayed using the relevant plug-in code. If the plug-in is not present, then the user may be prompted as to whether they wish to download the relevant plug-in or ignore the content. Such a system has the disadvantage that the retrieval of the data from the web is initiated by the user making the connection to the website and requesting the relevant data. The webserver is not able to autonomously initiate execution of a process upon a target computer.